The Irish standard., 1887-01-15

old country which Conroy takes With
him across the sea arat those. Of his sister
dragged out of. the house in which she,
had been born, by the soldier-police
amid the :shrill execra rations Of the whole
countryside, poWerless to stay the hand;
Of the eyictor, powerful only TO cry
aloud to- pitying Heaven for venl--5s ~
'geance On the oppressor. Conroy, it
will lbe said, had only himself to blame. @
If he had paid his rent he could have
remained un1noIested. But causes over
which CoEroy had no control rendered
it imp possible for him to pay his rent
general ceuses which have led English
landlords everywhere to make re1uc-
3tions. Clanricarde refused, and Con-
roy has gone TO add another drop to the
cup of veng geanee thatsis Brewing for us
across the sea a nd let IT'S not forget
that, although Conroy had the option
Of All impossible alternative, many 8
thousand OF those who have preceded
him across the Atlantic had not even
that. They were eyic5ed without scru-
pie and without cause, save that their
landlord wanted to make room for a
sheep farm Or cattle rancho.
\ The result is universal discont tent
And rightly. It is a kind ofdumb faith
almost tlleo.lly faith Of any real Kind
extant III Ireland at tlli moment. For
Woodford is but a picture Of all Ire
land in which the evil latent elsewhere
has come to the surface and is seen and
known of all men. Discomfort and
dispair are the two poles between
which Ireland oscillates. And of The
two discomfort is Infinitely more hope
full. Ireland is quieting down, is it?
Becoming tranquil? God save Ireland,
then, for she would have given up even
the effort tosaye herselfl Nearly forty
years ago, Carlyle visited Ireland, and
wrote OF it on Ills return these words Of
truth and soberness:-
''Ireland in the quiet chronic state is
still more hideous than ireland in the
critical, even insurrection state. No,
that is not peace; that. Of a governing
aa|ass lst as;
at home. sitting idly in its drawing
rooms, in it's hunting saddles, like a
class quite uncor,cerned with govern
ing, concerned only to get the rents
and wages Of governing, and the gov
ernable ungoverned millions sunk
meanwhile in dark cabins, in ignor-
ance, slo5h, confusion, superstition and
putrid ignoniny, dying the hunger
death, orwhat is worse, living the hum
ger-life IN degradation below that OF
dogs. A human dog kennel, i've mil
lions strong, it that a thing to be quiet
over?'
No, verilyl and if the Irish were quiet
they would never deserve to be free.
They chafe in revolt under it, have long
chafed: but have they enongh resent
ment, other than mad despair to learn
the secret Of getting rid of all that? II
is an open secret, the secret whereby
alone the English have done their best
work in the world, have been able even
to do the bad work that has been done
in Ireland, the secret Of Faith in God,
which torbids us even to despair OF the
future, and Faith in Man, which alone
renders possible Union, Discipline,
Obedience, the three steps which lead
men to victory. Alasl cannot say.
Churches the Irish have enough, and
priests; but Of that faith in the Divine
governance Of the world which English
and Scotchmen always confident that if
they are but true to the right they must
come off conquerors in the end, there is
not much in Ireland "We have been
disappointed SO often,'' the Irish say,
and it is true. Nor does it lie III onr
mouths to upbraid them. We have
helped to blast out God from their uni.
verse, to teach them that injustice is
stronger than Justice. and that Wrong,
when supported by soldiers and police,
is stronger than Right, Thus it has
come to pass that in Ireland faith i'll an
invisible God, who doeth justly and
judgeth the nations of the earth, has
largely given way, and in its stead
there hourishes kind Of hideous in
yerted faith in the popular palpable
Devil-the Devil with two heads, Land
lordism and English rule. And even
now, when, in CarlYle's vivid phrase,
eOur impious Tower Of Babel, built
high for centuries now, against Gods
commandment, having at last, with
fatal shudder through every stone of it,
cracked from top to base, and bending
now Yisibly to every eye and hanging
in momentarY peril Of tumbl bling wholly.
and Of carving our Own q yelling place
along with it ven now they hardly
venture to hope for Ultimate success:
ssThe unfailings energy Of good s is to
them d phrase falsifed BY many q long
series OF iron + is. Generation after
gene ion Ireland has reared the nob-
lest her sons for exile. fer the dun
1Ygeon and the gall ovRs ,rheS wards Of
.pario rs, riotism III Irela and have been the
sha anf1criffa1 aTfl la The grave. sThe finest